Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
We've all heard of the omnipotence of God; that He has the power to do all things. You may have heard a philosophical question raised about this idea. You may have heard someone say something like 'Can God make an omelet so hot that He can't eat it?' To that I answer with 'Yes!' But of course, if God can do anything then it seems that He couldn't make an omelet so hot that he can't eat it. The question sets up God's omnipotence to be self contradictory. But there really is an explanation to my 'Yes' answer, which I will now try my best at.
God is one but not just one. Its the paradox of the trinity that I am talking about. God is one, but He has manifested Himself in three Persons. There is no doubt that the Bible consistently reveals the heavenly Father as being omnipotent. With the Son, however, that is not the case. Mark 6:5 reads 'He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them'. In Matthew 24:36 Jesus says, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." And in John 14:28 He says, "for the Father is greater than I". So we see clearly, even from the words of Jesus, that the Son of God does not have the same omnipotence that the Father has. This leads me to give this childlike answer to the question above: God the Father can make an omelet so hot that God the Son cannot eat it. And since the Father and the Son are one (John 10:30), it is correct to say: 'Yes, God can make an omelet so hot that He can't eat it'.
Now I'm sure there's someone out there thinking I just did something sacrilegious or whatever. People want to believe that Jesus is omnipotent and equal with the Father, but if you just read the Bible and simply believe what it says, you will see that that is not the case. Really, it doesn't matter which one's greater, or even that one is greater, because they are two in one, or three in one. Jesus said "I and the Father are one". So do you think He really lessened Himself by saying "The Father is greater than I"? If you think about it, you see that for God to be truly omnipotent and infinite, it makes sense for Him to make Himself also finite. An infinite God can be finite too; that's the essence of being omnipotent; able to do anything, or be anything (even being finite while still being infinite).
Now I must finish with one final word. This whole thing is fun for the brain, but I don't believe it would be healthy for a Christian to take these things too seriously. There are going to be plenty of things about God that we humans simply cannot understand. That is why the Bible must be read with a sense of spirit and not technicality. Whether this detail or that detail is true or not true really doesn't matter. The truths that are important, and that God wanted us to understand, are clearly laid out in the Bible. All the other questions, the details that are not so clear, we can ponder, but should beware of putting too much weight on any conclusion we come to.
We've all heard of the omnipotence of God; that He has the power to do all things. You may have heard a philosophical question raised about this idea. You may have heard someone say something like 'Can God make an omelet so hot that He can't eat it?' To that I answer with 'Yes!' But of course, if God can do anything then it seems that He couldn't make an omelet so hot that he can't eat it. The question sets up God's omnipotence to be self contradictory. But there really is an explanation to my 'Yes' answer, which I will now try my best at.
God is one but not just one. Its the paradox of the trinity that I am talking about. God is one, but He has manifested Himself in three Persons. There is no doubt that the Bible consistently reveals the heavenly Father as being omnipotent. With the Son, however, that is not the case. Mark 6:5 reads 'He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them'. In Matthew 24:36 Jesus says, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." And in John 14:28 He says, "for the Father is greater than I". So we see clearly, even from the words of Jesus, that the Son of God does not have the same omnipotence that the Father has. This leads me to give this childlike answer to the question above: God the Father can make an omelet so hot that God the Son cannot eat it. And since the Father and the Son are one (John 10:30), it is correct to say: 'Yes, God can make an omelet so hot that He can't eat it'.
Now I'm sure there's someone out there thinking I just did something sacrilegious or whatever. People want to believe that Jesus is omnipotent and equal with the Father, but if you just read the Bible and simply believe what it says, you will see that that is not the case. Really, it doesn't matter which one's greater, or even that one is greater, because they are two in one, or three in one. Jesus said "I and the Father are one". So do you think He really lessened Himself by saying "The Father is greater than I"? If you think about it, you see that for God to be truly omnipotent and infinite, it makes sense for Him to make Himself also finite. An infinite God can be finite too; that's the essence of being omnipotent; able to do anything, or be anything (even being finite while still being infinite).
Now I must finish with one final word. This whole thing is fun for the brain, but I don't believe it would be healthy for a Christian to take these things too seriously. There are going to be plenty of things about God that we humans simply cannot understand. That is why the Bible must be read with a sense of spirit and not technicality. Whether this detail or that detail is true or not true really doesn't matter. The truths that are important, and that God wanted us to understand, are clearly laid out in the Bible. All the other questions, the details that are not so clear, we can ponder, but should beware of putting too much weight on any conclusion we come to.
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